01 May 2025
The Brilliant Bugattis
4 minutes
A century on from the start of Bugatti’s supremacy on Europe’s racing tracks, it’s time to celebrate the Bugatti dynasty’s masterworks of art and design.
For the wider public, the Italian name Bugatti is associated with masterworks of car design and engineering, but the Bugatti family’s artistic talents were far more wide-reaching.
Over four generations they made an immense contribution to the world of art and design and The Brilliant Bugattis exhibition at the Treasure House Fair in London this summer will be the most important UK focus on the Bugatti family in almost half a century.
The 30 artworks, designs and cars will include pieces by patriarch, Carlo (1856-1940) who designed furniture to silverware; his sons – animal sculptor Rembrandt (1884-1916) and car engineer Ettore (1881-1946) to his grandsons Jean (1909-1939), whose Type 43 Grand Sport car design significantly contributed to the fame of the Bugatti name, and Roland, who designed the Type 52 Baby Bugatti.
The show, curated by Edward Horswell, an authority on artworks relating to the Bugatti family, will feature rarely seen pieces loaned by some of today’s most important Bugatti collectors.
Horswell says ‘the multi-generational accomplishments of Carlo, Ettore, Rembrandt and Jean are phenomenal’.
He said: “Besides their immense creative range, each of them were pioneers of their respective fields, creating new aesthetics and demonstrating a pursuit for perfection.
“We hope this exhibition will shed light on their individual genius, as well as the characteristics that typify all their work – aplomb, stylisation, functional inventiveness and above all, beauty.”
Exhibition highlights
The Brilliant Bugattis will include some of Carlo’s most iconic furniture designs, drawing influence from Islamic and Japanese decorative traditions, as well as Romanesque architecture. His furniture incorporated pieces of parchment, vellum, inlaid with pewter, brass and a variety of wood veneers.
A chair and desk set, circa 1904, made by Carlo for his long-time friend Giovanni Giacometti, painter and father of Alberto Giacometti, will be on show. The set was a central piece in Giacometti’s studio in Stampa, Switzerland.
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(Image: Chair and desk, circa 1904, made by Carlo Bugatti for his friend Giovanni Giacometti) |
The exhibition will also include a rare silver tea set, unique for the period and a testament to Carlo’s mastery of working with silver.
Rembrandt Bugatti is today widely recognised as one of the most talented sculptors of the early 20th century. His career spanned little more than 12 years before it was cut short in 1916 by his suicide at the age of 31.
He created a prodigious body of work displaying technical finesse, formal beauty, intensity of expression and subtle stylistic inventiveness. Inspired by his frequent visits to the Paris and Antwerp zoos, his bronze menagerie captures the essence and movement of his animal models. Yawning Lioness (1903) and Yawning Hipppotamus (1905) will be on show.
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(Image: Yawning Lioness 1903 by Rembrandt Bugatti c. Sladmore Gallery) |
(Image: Yawning Hippopotamus 1905 by Rembrandt Bugatti c. Sladmore Gallery) |
World record at auction
In June 2024, an exceptional bronze by Rembrandt Bugatti sold for €3,678,400 (£3,195,000) at Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr's Impressionist and Modern Sale in Paris. After a bidding battle this unique piece Trois panthères marchant, cast in bronze by Adrien-Aurélien Hébrard, showing three walking panthers together, set a world record for a work by the artist sold at auction.
Bugatti was 20 when he met his bronze founder and dealer, Adrien-Aurélien Hébrard. Every year, Hébrard exhibited Bugatti's new works in his gallery on rue Royale, Paris.
Bénédicte van Campen, Bonhams' Senior International Specialist, said: “This is the strongest result for a work by Rembrandt Bugatti at auction. This unique piece is the most iconic sculpture by the artist, exceptional by its size and its beautiful patina.”
Driving force behind a technical revolution
The cars which Ettore Buggati and his son Jean designed in the first half of the 20th century are today credited as some of most glamourous ever built.
Between 1899, when Ettore built his first vehicle, and his death in 1947, the world witnessed the birth of the automobile industry. It was a technical revolution in which Bugatti was a driving force. The fame surrounding the Bugatti brand with its red and white oval radiator badge is due to the pioneering vision of Ettore.
Like Rembrandt, Ettore trained in his father’s studio from an early age. He was a man of many talents; a self-trained automotive engineer and manufacturer of racing, sport and touring cars, as well as an architect, ship builder, aeronautical engine designer. He patented more than 1,000 inventions from safety razors and pasta machines to tools for making parts for his own engine production.
Celebrating 100 years of Bugatti cars
September 1925 marked the start of Bugatti’s supremacy on Europe’s racing tracks with the Type 39 works Grand Prix car’s first appearance at Monza. The Type 39 works Grand Prix car on display in the exhibition features its original body and is regularly used by its owner.
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(Image: 1925 Bugatti Type 39 works Grand Prix Car) |
The Treasure House Art Fair, Royal Hospital Chelsea, June 26 – July 1, 2025
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